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New York: US President Barack Obama has told Russia to get back to behaving within international norms or face push-back from NATO countries and the wider international community.
The message, arguably the strongest American rebuke of its former Cold War foe since Republican President Ronald Reagan dubbed it the Evil Empire in 1983, came as Mr Obama addressed deteriorating global security at the United Nations General Assembly.
The assessment led also to a dramatic call on Muslims to challenge the dysfunction within their religious communities which produced fundamentalism and violence.
In an extraordinarily powerful speech to the annual session, which drew high praise from Prime Minister Tony Abbott and from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Mr Obama pulled no punches, lambasting Russia for providing arms to Ukrainian separatists subsequently used to shoot down Malaysia Airlines flight MH17.
He warned Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was one of few leaders not present, that NATO member states in eastern Europe could rely on US support against Russia's new imperialism under the pact's "collective defence" principle.
"First of all," he said, "big nations and small must meet our responsibility to observe and enforce international norms.
"One hundred years ago, a world war claimed the lives of many millions, proving that with the terrible power of modern weaponry, the cause of empire leads to the graveyard. It would take another world war to roll back the forces of fascism and racial supremacy, and form this United Nations to ensure that no nation can subjugate its neighbours and claim their territory."
But he warned that those gains in stability and peace were never to be taken for granted.
"Russia's actions in Ukraine challenge this postwar order," he said.
Mr Obama lamented a world where one nation's borders "can be redrawn by another, and civilised people are not allowed to recover the remains of their loved ones because of the truth that might be revealed".
"America stands for something different. We believe that right makes might – that bigger nations should not be able to bully smaller ones; that people should be able to choose their own future," he said.
"We will reinforce our NATO allies, and uphold our commitment to collective defence. We will impose a cost on Russia for aggression, and counter falsehoods with the truth. We call upon others to join us on the right side of history – for while small gains can be won at the barrel of a gun, they will ultimately be turned back if enough voices support the freedom of nations and peoples to make their own decisions."
Mr Abbott endorsed the US's toughened stance on Russia, which mirrored his own position. He called it a great speech by a great leader.
On the threat of terrorism, Mr Obama justified the war on Islamic State forces in Syria and Iraq, but said there was a great responsibility among law-abiding Muslims to deny and defeat the rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism.
"No God condones this terror. No grievance justifies these actions. There can be no reasoning – no negotiation – with this brand of evil. The only language understood by killers like this is the language of force. So the United States of America will work with a broad coalition to dismantle this network of death" he said.
"It is time for the world – especially Muslim communities – to explicitly, forcefully, and consistently reject the ideology of al-Qaeda and ISIL.
"It is the task of all great religions to accommodate devout faith with a modern, multicultural world. No children – anywhere – should be educated to hate other people. There should be no more tolerance of so-called clerics who call upon people to harm innocents because they are Jewish, Christian or Muslim.
Speaking after his own contribution to the special UN Security Council on stopping foreign fighters from entering the fray, Mr Abbott revealed that "well over 20" jihadists had returned to Australia after being "radicalised and brutalised".
"It was a really outstanding speech by President Obama, it was uplifting, it was honest, and it was challenging, it was a fine, fine, fine speech, it was the speech of a great leader," Mr Abbott remarked.
